Ice Breaker Games

Get to know you games are obviously used for team members to get to know eachother better. If you are with a team that have been swimming together for a long time you probably only need to use one of these at the start of the season for fun but that is it.

For teams / groups that are new to eachother these games might be more useful and you might even need to use them for the first few weeks.

Again, most of these are not synchro specific so feel free to use them in many settings!!

2 Truths and a Lie

Ages 6+, 3+ People

Land Activity

Pen and Paper optional

This game is great to use when the group is coming back from a summer or winter break. Have each member think of 2 things they did that summer and 1 think that they didn't do but would sound believable. Everyone takes turns reading out their 3 activities and the rest of the group has to guess which ones are true and which one is the lie.

This can be used any time of the year and just be 2 truths about themselves and 1 lie.

You can make this into more of a game by dividing the group into 2 teams and each team getting 10 points if they guess the lie on thier first guess, 5 points if the guess it on their second guess and 0 points if they don't get it until their third guess.

Picnic Game

Ages 5+, 5+ People

Land or Water Activity

No Equipement

Ok, so I have played the Picnic Game 2 differnt ways. Both can be good for ice breakers and name learning!

Both games require group to be in a circle, either sitting or in eggbeater!

1. Picnic Tricknic (just because it sounds funny). One person starts and they have a rule to what can come to their picnic. So if I started and said "My names Holly, I am going to a picnic and I am bringing a Hotdog" then that would be the first clue. Now everyone is going to go around the circle and say their name what they are going to bring to the picnic and I will tell them if they can come or not based on my rule. So in this case my rule was that the first letter of what I was bringing started with the first letter of my name. So Sally could bring a sandwich but she couldn't bring a dog.

You can do tons of different rules to make it harder or easier and give other participants turns to make up a rule.

2. Picnic Name Game- So here you go around the circle one at a time and say your name and and object you are going to bring to the picnic that starts with the same first letter as your name. So again I can say "I'm Holly and I am bringing a hot dog". Now the next person would have to say "Shes Holly and shes bringing a hot dog, I'm Sally and I am bringing a sandwich". The third person would say that both the names and objects of the people infront of them and then their own. For larger groups by the end the last person is going to have to remember a lot!

Variations:

-You don't have to be at a picnic at all! Maybe camping, or synchro class or what ever you want

Human Bingo

Ages 5+, 20+ People

Land Activity

Human Bingo Sheets and Pens

Human bingo is always a fun activity for larger groups, probably wouldn't be appropriate for just one team.

Basically you get a bingo sheet that says things like 'Has red hair' or 'likes to camp' and you have to find people in the group that the different bingo spots apply to. Once you found someone then have then sign that spot.

You can make up your own bingo cards or google human bingo and find one you like.

Make sure you set rules so you get the results you want. Things to think about when you are determining your rules are:

-Do you want it to be a black out card or just a line? Or something else?

-Do you want people to be able to sign their own card?

-Are people allowed to sign a card more then once?

Try to avoid making specific spots for each person. It might work out, however when you put things like: "My moms name is Cindy" and it really turns out that 3 people have moms named Cindy then you went through a lot of work and will not get the desired result!

Toilet Paper Intros

Ages 5+, 4+ People

Land or Water Activity

Toilet Paper or other objects

You can use toilet paper for this, or jelly beans on land, or pennies at the bottom of the pool for a water variation. I'm going to use toilet paper for my example but feel free to be creative and use something else!

Pass a roll of toilet paper around and tell everyone to take as many squares as they want but don't tell them why.

Once everyone has their toilet paper (there will usually be one jokester that will take tones) then inform them that they have to go around and tell every one their name and as many interesting facts about themselves as toilet paper squares they took. So if you only took one square you only have to tell one fact, if you took 10 then you have to tell 10!

I would do this with pennies by playing the penny game (throw pennies into the pool and let participants swim for them) and however many pennies they brought back is the number of facts they have to share!

Name Ball

Ages 6+, 5+ People

Land or Water Activity

1+ Ball(s) required

My mom LOVES this activity and always tries to get me to use it even if the group already knows eachother well!

I think it is fun for when you are learning peoples names, especially if you are like me and you need to hear a name over and over again before you remember it!

Have the participants sit, stand or eggbeater in a circle (always good to add in some eggbeater while they are distrackted!).

Everyone puts their hand up, and one person starts with a ball. The person with the ball says someone elses name and then passes that person the ball. Then that person calls someone elses name and passes them the ball. Once you have touch the ball you put your hand down. The ball is passed around until everyone has had the ball.

Remembering that order, the group continues to pass the ball in the same order as before (always receiving the ball from the same person and passing the ball to the same person) trying to speed up the sequence.

To make it harder, add in a 2nd, 3rd or 4th ball. You can either do a verbal round where you always call the persons name before passing the ball to them or a non-verbal round with everyone silent.

Never Have I Ever...

Ages 5+, 6+ People

Land or Water Activity

No Equipement

I am sure some of you have played or heard of a more 'adult' version of this game but here it is totally harmless.

Have participants get into a cirlce, either sitting, standing or eggbeatering.

One person is in the middle of the circle and they say "never have I ever..." and something they haven't done, like gone to New York, owned a cat or pierced their ears. Anyone who has done that has to move from their spot and find a new one. Whoever is stuck in the middle has to be the next person to say "never have I ever...".

Make sure there is one less spots then people so that there is always one person stuck in the middle.

Variations:

-For younger kids put markers on the ground or else they will make spots out of areas where there wasn't one

-You can make spots in the pool by placing hula hoops in the water and then the kids have to swim underwater to get into a hula hoop which is great practice for younger kids!

-If "Never have I ever" is not approprite for your participants (usually 14+ co-ed groups as boys might start pushing the limits) then try "All my neighbours". It is essentially the same thing except you say things that apply to you. For example "all my neighbours who wear glasses" (if you wear glasses.

Name Tag

Ages 6+, 8+ People

Land or Water Activity

No Equipment

Have group stand or eggbeater in a circle with one person (the tagger) in the middle.

The Tagger calls out there own name and another persons name ("Holly, Sally"). Now the tagger attempts to tag the person whose name they called out before they call out there own name and someone elses ("Sally, Jim"). In this example, if Sally calls out "Sally, Jim" before Holly tags Sally, then Holly has to attempt to tag Jim. Jim would have to say "Jim, Cole" or another persons name before Holly tagged him to stay safe. If Jim was not able to say "Jim, Cole" before Holly Tagged him then Jim and Holly would switch places so now Jim is it.

Note: Make sure participants have introduced themselves before playing this game.

Name Association

Ages 4+, 8+ People

Land or Water Activity

No Equipment

This just makes it easier whenever kids or groups of people are introducing themselves. I am super bad at remembering names but this always helps!

When people go around and say their name, have them say and animal or word with it that starts with the same first letter. For example, I have been 'Happy Holly' or 'Holly the Horse' many a time.

You can even have them do an action with it. So either act like the animal or make up silly movement to go with it. With younger kids I like to do animals, and then we all act like that animal. So if Mia was a Monkey, then we would all act like a Monkey.

You can do this to any theme! It also helps if everyone repeates the name back. For example I would say "Hi, I'm happy Holly!" and everyone would reply "Hi happy Holly!".

Who's Behind the Curtain?

Ages 4+, 10+ People

Land activity

Blanket, towel, sheet or curtain

This is a fun game I learnt today in class. Super simple and helps the group get to learn eachothers names.

Divide the group into two and send each half to opposite sides of the playing area. You and a volunteer stand up in the middle of the play area and hold up a sheet or towel or something up in the middle of the play area so that the top of the sheet is help higher then the participants are tall.

One participant from each group comes up behind their side of the sheet. You and your volunteer drop the sheet and there willl be one person from each team standing across from eachother. Those two players have to try and say the name of the person they are looking at as fast as they can.

Whoever says the right name of the person they are looking at first wins and BOTH of the players who just went go back to the winners team.

You can play until one team has no more players (everyone is on one side) or for a designated amount of time/turns. Which ever team has the largest group at the end wins!